Tuesday, December 8, 2015

College Football Roundup: Week 14

It was championship week in college football, and it did not disappoint. Some great finishes, some great performances from Heisman candidates, and no doubt left who the four playoff teams are.

1. Clemson Tigers (vs. #10 North Carolina, W 45-37): Stupidity held Clemson back in the first half, as they had 8 penalties including 2 personal fouls on TJ Green leading to his ejection, which did not help the Tigers at all going forward. Also, punter Andy Teasdall went rogue and called a fake punt himself on 4th and 15 which didn't go well. BUT, the offense turned it on late in the half to get the lead back. And then they never looked back. UNC got lucky with field position and that's really the only reason they scored so much. Because the Clemson defense did a really nice job against their high powered offense. Also, you really can't say enough about Deshaun Watson. If Wayne Gallman didn't get scorching hot in the second half (170 of his 187 rushing yards were in the second half) then Deshaun might have had 400 passing yards and 200 rushing yards. He finished with 289 and 131, respectively and 5 total TDs. In my mind, he has to win the Heisman.

2. Alabama Crimson Tide (vs. #18 Florida, W 29-15): Derrick Henry is really good, no doubt. But he's had 90 carries over his last 2 games. One would hope he could put up big numbers with that amount of carries. He averaged 4.4 yards per carry this past Saturday. That's not that great. Alabama is very beatable. I mean, imagine if Florida had an offense? That game could have gone a lot differently. Sidenote: how many years is Nick Saban taking off of Henry's NFL career by running him over 40 times a game?

3. Oklahoma Sooners: BYE

4. Iowa Hawkeyes (vs. #5 Michigan State, L 16-13): This was a classic Big 10 game, which is probably exactly what Iowa wanted. But they died a long, slow death on Michigan State's 9 minute, 22 play drive that ended with a TD with 27 seconds left. That is one of the worst ways to lose a football game I've ever seen.

5. Michigan State Spartans (vs. #4 Iowa, W 16-13): How Connor Cook won the MVP of this game is beyond me. Dude sucked the entire game. LJ Scott was the one who scored their only touchdown, which was the game winner. And then Cook with the cocky grab of the MVP trophy.

6. Ohio State Buckeyes: BYE

7. Stanford Cardinal (vs. #20 USC, W 41-22): Christian McCaffrey had a pretty nice game, as he broke the single season record for most all purpose yards, passing Barry Sanders. Other than that though, screw Stanford.

8. Notre Dame Fighting Irish: BYE

9. Florida State Seminoles: BYE

10. North Carolina Tar Heels (vs. #1 Clemson, L 45-37): Good try UNC. But one ref realizing a guy's head was over the line didn't lose that game for ya. At least you have basketball season.

11. TCU Horned Frogs: BYE

12 Baylor Bears (vs. Texas, L 23-17): LOL

13. Ole Miss Rebels: BYE

14. Northwestern Wildcats: BYE

15. Michigan Wolverines: BYE

16. Oregon Ducks: BYE

17. Oklahoma State Cowboys: BYE

18. Florida Gators (vs. #2 Alabama, L 29-15): Florida's defense is really good. But their offense doesn't belong on a college football field.

19. Houston Cougars (vs. #22 Temple, W 24-13): Great season for Houston ends with the AAC title and earning a big bowl game against FSU.

20. USC Trojans (vs. #7 Stanford, L 41-22): Didn't even know USC was playing in the Pac 12 title game until it was going on.

21. LSU Tigers: BYE

22. Temple Owls (vs. #19 Houston, L 24-13): Good season for Temple. Just came up short though.